Handy Randy

Last weekend Randy and I did a little garage project. This is the 3rd woodworking weekend in a row for me, if you include the shelves weekend and the week in-between when I helped with the roof.

Randy needed to complete a woodworking project for his cub scout project, so rather than making a birdhouse Karen and I thought he could help me build a workbench in the garage. He went with me to Home Depot and was a real trooper, helping me pick out all the materials. This was a bit difficult with all the post-Ike home repair projects in full flight and supplies low.

I decided to use the old 4x4 legs from the beds I had made for Tyler and Randy - when I had split their bunk beds to make loft beds. The 4x4 lengths made excellent bench legs. Randy got a little bored with the project but came out and started driving nails. After that, I pretty much could not get rid of him. He loves that hammer! And he's very good at it.

We put up a bench with a "step" or "seat" on one side that I thought the kids could use to help with projects, or I could just sit things on it. We also put up peg board and hung some tools from it.

Great job, Randy!!

The pains of progress (and putting up shelves)

So it's been, what, two and a half years since we moved into this house? We're slowly but surely organizing things. It's not that I don't want organization but I need to space my projects far enough apart so that I forget how painful they are. Case in point: my most recent inspiration - the shelves I installed in the garage.

We have a 3-car garage and we make a point of using it. This is a tangent worth of its own blog, but let's just say most people in Texas seem to think the garage is for everything but cars.

We have two cars, so currently the 3rd bay has served as a catch-all. Unfortunately it's been catching too much. Also the back section of the garage has been poorly used and I got the idea that I could do something with the vertical space.So I took my inspiration from a show I saw many months ago - the DIY Network's Wasted Spaces (search for "Sports Garage Makeover"). I went to Home Depot and bought myself some lumber and screws and away I went fixing the problem. I built three shelves hanging side by side from the back of the garage.

What I did wrong:

1. With the first shelf, I built the shelf completely before raising it up and screwing it in. This meant the shelf was heavier and had nothing to brace it while screwing it in place. Karen and I together were barely able to hold and secure it. For the 2nd and 3rd shelves I screwed the 2x4 horizontal support into the wall , then laid the particle boad shelf frame onto that while securing the hanging 2x4 supports. MUCH easier.
2. I used the wrong length 2x4 to make the first hanging support. I didn't realize this until it was fully secured. What's the saying about measuring twice, cutting once?
3. I nailed the metal braces into the ceiling joists instead of screwing them in. I should have used screws but didn't realize this until after the first two shelves were up. I'm planning to go back and add some "L" braces to the 4 hanging supports, as well as a middle support to those first two shelves with screwed-in metal braces.
4. Smashed my thumb.

So at just under $100, two days hard labor, 3 dozen bent nails, two broken drill bits, one broken Dremel cutter, and one very smashed thumb I'm pretty happy with the results.

Next garage project will be to build some additional shelves along the far wall and underneath the hanging shelves. One section will have a workbench space. I can't wait!